Thursday, November 18, 2010

Remembering!

I don't know why! Or why now, but my thoughts are racing towards memories on my grandmother Edith Reynolds.  It has been a busy day here today as I finished off a major database move from one server to another.  Lots of updates, broken links, users not able to log in and now I am taking a break as the phones are quiet... This is when my grandmother came to mind and I don't know why!  I didn't know her very well at all.  I did meet her in the spring of 1968 when she came to visit us in Arkansas.  I don't recall her voice, her appearance or her eyes, it was such a short visit there just wasn't time.  I do remember that she could recite the alphabet backward faster that I could forward.  She taught me to spell Mississippi with humpback, dotted and crooked letters.  She tricked me into a game of  "Who could count to one hundred" the fastest!  She said start and off I started counting as fast as a 12 year old could.. 1,2,3...21,22,23.  But! But, she wasn't counting yet... I got to 90 and she rang out 10, 10, double 10, 45, 15. And then declared that she won...  Sitting there confused, she had me add up the numbers... we laughed!  She was with us for three or fours days before she passed away. She had seen me as a baby and a boy, as we traveled with the military to an oversea duty station and back.  She, however had not met my youngest sister to this point, who was now about 6 years old. Grandma made sure that she was able to see us all again and then left.  The only other memory I have of my grandmother Edith R. Reynolds is, she loved the song Old Rugged Cross, which was played at her Wake.  We laid my grandmother to earth in the Edson Cemetery in Lowell Massachusetts. One of these days I will revisit my grandmother and tell her that I love her.

3 comments:

  1. Bless your heart, Bill. That was wonderful to read. Very special memories. I hope you write more such memories about your parents, your siblings, your personal experiences of all sorts growing up. I know you have a lot to say...

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  2. In 2010, I took my Dad to Dayton, Ohio, to see his last remaining sibling, his brother. While there, we visited the Air Force museum. We had a wonderful day. We approached a display of various rockets, displayed very tall, and on end. The rocket had the numbers 4515 displayed vertically. Dad exclaims "10, 10, double 10, 45, 15! The fastest way to count to 100!" So, today, as Facebook brings up a 5 year lookback, there is the rocket 4515 picture. I looked it up and saw your identical reference to it also. My Dad was 86 when I brought him. Within 2 years, both he and his brother were gone. And, ironically, you had posted it just a few months after our Ohio visit!

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